Farmington Historic Home on Lincoln Heritage trail - Louisville KY
Posted by: 
GT.US
N 38° 12.861 W 085° 40.062
16S E 616633 N 4230436
The Farmington Historic Home is a stop on the Lincoln Heritage trail.
Waymark Code: WM9NJH
Location: Kentucky, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2010
Views: 4
The website at (
visit link) tells us:
"Farmington, a fourteen-room Federal-style home, was the center of John and Lucy Speed’s nineteenth-century hemp plantation. Abraham Lincoln, a close friend of John Speed’s son Joshua, spent about three weeks at Farmington in 1841. Designed from plans drawn by Thomas Jefferson and completed in 1816 with slave labor, the newly restored house features original paint colors, historic wallpaper and carpet, and is furnished with Kentucky furniture and period furnishings."
In addition (
visit link)
Abraham Lincoln's 1841 Visit to Farmington
In early fall of 1841, thirty-two-year-old Abraham Lincoln, then a lawyer in Springfield,
Illinois, visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington. Lincoln stayed at the Speed plantation for a three-week period. At the time, both he and Speed were second-guessing their respective courtings of future wives, Mary Todd and Fanny Henning. Lincoln spent the visit walking the plantation fields and socializing with the Speed family. The future president also traveled to James Speed’s law office in downtown Louisville to read his law books.
At Farmington, Lincoln was again introduced to slavery. Although he most likely witnessed slavery during his childhood in Kentucky and later during trips to New Orleans, his visit to Farmington gave him a closer view of the institution. At the time, the Speeds owned about sixty enslaved African Americans. During this visit, Lincoln likely observed these enslaved African Americans engaged in a range of tasks, including preparations for the fall hemp harvest. Most of these slaves provided the labor force for the cultivation of hemp, which was grown in the fields of Farmington.
Abraham Lincoln encountered slavery firsthand both on this plantation and on the Louisville waterfront.